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OUR TWENTY HELPS 



AND 



WHY WE PARTED, 



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OUR TWENTY HELPS 



AND 



WHY WE PARTED 



GLORVINA FORT. 



3^7 'TtJ 



PHILADELPHIA! 
1881. 






Copyrighted by Glorvina Fort. 



INDEX. 



PAGE 

Mitty A — (American) 5 

Mitty B — (American) 11 

Mitty C — (American) , 15 

Mitty D — (American) 22 

Mitty E— (American) 24 

Mitty F — (American) 26 

Mitty G — (American) 27 

Mitty H— (African) 32 

Mitty I— (American) 33 

Mitty J— (Irish) 34 

Mitty K — (African) 35 

Mitty L— (American) 38 

Mitty M— (African) 42 

Mitty N— (Irish) 43 

Mitty O — (Irish) 48 

Mitty P— (African) 49 

Mitty Q— (Irish) 50 

Mitty R— (African) 51 

Mitty S — (African) 52 

Mitty T — (African) 53 

Conclusion 56 



OUR TWENTY HELPS, 



WHY WE PARTED. 



WE intend on this occasion, to give the name 
of Mitty to all the chief actors in this 
sketch of domestic life, because we admire it for 
its simplicity and suitability. 

MITTY A— {American.) 

Our first help was a half-grown girl. She was 
the oldest child of a very numerous family. 
The fact is, that during our walks and rides 
near the place she called home, there were 
always in and around it, more little children 
than we could ever count. 

Her father was a hard drinker, and did very 
little towards the support of his family. By 



6 OUR TWENTY HELPS, 

occupation he was a day laborer. If he had 
not spent the greater part of his earnings for 
liquor, he would probably have kept them 
supplied with the common necessaries of life; 
but as he did, they were very often obliged to 
go supperless to bed. 

His wife worked hard by taking in washing. 
She thus " kept the wolf from the door," in 
sufficient degree to save them from actual star- 
vation. One sad day came in which they were 
unable to pay their rent. Consequently they 
were deprived of their home, by having their 
household goods and chattels set out on the 
curb-stone, their door locked and the key carried 
away. Pitying their forlorn condition, a certain 
benevolent neighbor gave them permission to 
move into an old shanty, that stood on one of 
his lots, and to live there rent-free. 

Under such circumstances, the mother was 
too nearly heart-broken to be a model house- 
keeper. But the poor woman did the best she 
could, and meanwhile, Mr. A. continued the too 
frequent "crooking his elbow," in a way that 
did not improve his habits. 



AND WHY WE PARTED. ' 

It was soon after their removal to that miser- 
able old shanty, that we became inclined to 
bring a new help into our household. 

Mrs. A. having heard of our intention, came 
forward, and offered us the services of her blue- 
eyed daughter, Mitty A. As often happens, 
we had not much of a choice, and we consented 
to take her on trial for a few weeks. 

During the first week or two after entering 
our service, she performed her duties tolerably 
well. After that she became very careless, and 
inattentive. We were frequently almost tempted 
to wish we were rid of her. Yet knowing as 
we did, the miseries of her home life, we 
refrained from dismissing her, and hoped perhaps, 
in time, she would learn to do better. 

Thus we worried along with her, during 
several months. Then one morning we were 
favored with a call from her mother, who 
complained to us in a very aggravating manner, 
that we put too much work on her daughter. 
More than she had strength to stand. While 
the fact was, that her share of domestic labor in 
our house, was very light when compared to 



8 OUR TWENTY HELPS, 

what she had been accustomed to perform in her 
own home. We knew that Mrs. A. the mother's 
object was to try to extort more money from us, 
by our offering to raise the girl's wages. 

Under the circumstances, we were not at all 
inclined to make any such offer. Consequently 
Mitty A. and we parted-without tears of sorrow 
being shed on either side, by the separation. 
' No doubt the poor girl felt more contented 
among her own people, — even if she did some- 
times miss a meal, or make it on dry bread, and 
have to work harder, than she did while in our 
house. Therefore she was better disposed to 
work with a good will. 

This habit of changing situations so often, as 
they do, is a great misfortune to hired girls in 
America. We once had a friend whose waiting- 
maid lived with her thirty years. Sustaining 
all these years, the be^t of characters, of course 
she was paid very good wages. She was all 
that long period without making any waste of 
time, which others spend in roving from one 
place to another. By this means her money 
accumulated. With a part of it, she bought a 



AND WHY WE PAKTED. 9 

comfortable, moderately-sized, brick house. The 
balance was safely invested on good security, 
and at a profitable interest. 

Then when our good friend, her employer, 
paid the "debt of Nature," her long-time and 
faithful help, moved into her own house. She 
took a few quiet, and respectable boarders, and 
then, without having to work very hard, was 
blessed during the rest of her life, with peace 
and plenty. 

Such a good management of her opportunities 
is open to every healthy and able-bodied 3 oung 
woman in our fortunate and happy land. But 
alas, how few there are among us, who will be 
willing to follow this most excellent example. 

Probably not one in a thousand would be so 
wise and prudent. They lose too much time in 
running about seeking new situations. Again, 
generally, they waste far too much money in 
trying to dress as Avell as other people, who do 
not have to work for their living- 

But to return to Mitty A. She left our house, 
and returned to the miserable abode of her 
parents. A few months after that event, Mrs. 



10 OUR TWENTY HELPS, 

A. was taken sick. She was fairly worn out 
with sorrow, hard work, and poor living. She 
very soon became bed-fast, and was never again 
restored to the use of her hands and feet. Then 
the entire labor and care of the household fell 
upon the head and shoulders of poor young 
Mitty A. She took in such washing as neigh- 
bors were disposed to trust to her inexperienced 
skill. The mother remained ill a whole year. 
It was a sad and melancholy year to Mitty. At 
last Mrs. A. died, — and was buried. 

Soon after that afflicting bereavement, Mitty 
A's father distributed his children as best he 
could among strangers. He then followed 
permanently the unprofitable business of a 
tramp, roving from one town to another, in 
quest of his victuals and drink. Mitty fortu- 
nately fell into good hands, and grew up a good 
and skillful domestic worker. The last time we 
heard of her, she was doing well, and was very 
much liked wherever she went. 

No doubt her early misfortunes made her 
strong in both mind and body, to endure the 
common ills of human life, from which there is 
not often found much of a reprieve. 



AND WHY WE PARTED. 11 

What ever became of her father and her 
numerous brothers and sisters we never heard. 

MITTY B— (American.) 

Our poor Mitty B. who soon filled the vacancy 
in our domestic circle, was not the brightest 
young woman that ever lived. But she was 
(we believed) perfectly honest. She attended 
to her work in a quiet, unostentatious way. She 
was very nice, and tidy in her habits. When 
she had been living with us nearly a year, we 
concluded we were perfectly suited, and could 
now live without soon making any change in 
our household. She seemed happy and con- 
tented., which in our estimation are very 
desirable qualities. A discontented person in a 
family, can and often does, produce a vast 
amount of mischief. We and Mitty B. lived in 
happy concord, without any jarring, or uncom- 
fortable event transpiring, to disturb our perfect 
peace and harmony. 

But one evening a messenger came from her 
home, with the information that there was in it 
a bad case of sickness, and her services were 



12 OUR TWENTY HELPS, 

needed to help attend it. Of course we had to 
let her go. Every thing else must yield to the 
comfort of the sick and needy. We mutually 
believed our separation would be only temporary, 
and that she would soon return to us. 

But time passed away and she did not make 
her appearance, until the greater part of a year 
had expired, and her place still remained vacant. 
We indulged the hope that she surely would 
come back some day. 

We could not go to inquire after her, because 
we did not know of a certainty, the address of 
the relations to whom she had gone. We had 
no time, we thought, to throw away in what 
would be most probably, an unsuccessful search. 
One evening she walked in with a bundle on her 
arm, and made the request that we would 
receive her on our former terms. 

Of course we were very glad to see her, and 
we gave her a warm welcome. She declared it 
made her very happy to be once more in our 
midst, where she had always been so pleased 
and contented to live. 

She immediately set herself to work, and 



AND WHY WE PARTED. 13 

seemed as familiar with her surroundings as if 
she had not been absent more than a day, 
instead of over a half year. 

Early the next morning she attended promptly 
to cleaning our front door step and pavement. 

While she was still thus occupied, we were 
called on by a near neighbor, with whom we 
were on terms of social intimacy. This neighbor 
hurriedly exclaimed, "Oh! do you not know 
where Mitty B. has spent her time during the 
last three months?" 

" We do not. Where has she been?" 

•'She has been in prison. In one, where there 
is prevailing a dangerous and contagious 
epidemic." 

" Oh ! horrible," we exclaimed, " are you sure 
it is true ? " 

" Oh, yes, I am perfectly sure; I do not know 
when I was so much surprised as on my way to 
market, I saw her here working for you. I 
concluded you could not know it, and felt it my 
duty to come in at once and tell you. Now 
good-bye, I must hurry off and attend to my 
own business. 



14 OUR TWENTY HELPS, 

We immediately appealed to Mitty B. and 
asked her where she had been living since she 
left us. She then looked very angry at the 
question, and would not answer it by one single 
word of any kind. 

" Now Mitty," we finally said, " if you do not 
tell us plainly and truly, all about where you 
have been living since we parted, we cannot 
keep you here one single day." 

She then quietly went up stairs, brought 
down her bundle and departed. 

In the afternoon of that same day, we saw 
her neatly dressed, sitting on the front door 
steps of our opposite neighbor's house, with her, 
(the neighbor's) youngest infant on her lap. 
This same opposite neighbor had moved near us 
quite recently, and was a total stranger to us, as 
well as she was, to the friend who had called on 
us early in the morning. Mitty B. and the 
people who employed her remained living in 
the same house a long time. We were well 
assured by what we daily witnessed among them, 
that Mitty B. had not carried jail fever or any 
other contagious contamination into their abode. 



AND WHY WE PASTED. 15 

Finally they moved away, and took Mitty 
with them, apparently well satisfied with her 
and her character. We never again had any 
news about her, — good, bad, or indifferent. 

MITTY C— (American.) 

We now lived some considerable time without 
hiring any regular domestic help. 

But at last, as women generally do, who are 
not compelled by necessity, to be their own 
domestic workers, we became weary of our sell- 
imposed labors, and began to inquire where we 
could find a new assistant in our household. 

We now formed the resolution, that we would 
obtain a middle-aged woman, who would be 
capable of relieving us entirely from our culinary 
duties. 

With this object in view, we called at the 
nearest intelligence office. 

Dear reader, did you ever enter one? 

Did you ever notice, how day after day, and 
hour after hour, twenty or thirty women, of all 
sizes, colors, and ages, will spend weary long 
periods, waiting therein to be suited with situ- 



16 OUR TWENTY HELPS, 

ations? We have often thought while passing 
them, if they would take half the trouble to 
keep a good place, when they have one, they 
would not so often be daily attendants, like so 
many disappointed ball-room wall-flowers in 
these offices. 

On our first entrance in the place, we cast a 
searching glance around the large circle of 
expecting candidates for situations. 

We saw among them no one that we thought 
would suit us. Some of them were too old, 
while the majority were too young. A few were 
too untidy in their appearance, while a large 
number were too much over-dressed in coarse, 
cheap, and tawdry finery. Some displayed such 
a ridiculous imitation of all the fashionable 
follies of the day, in their dress and trimmings, 
that we soon concluded no one in the present 
circle met our requirements in a household 
assistant. 

Then we privately informed the office- keeper, 
exactly what kind of a woman we were seeking. 

He politely smiled and told us if we would 
call again on the following morning at an early 



AND WHY WE PAKTED. 17 

hour, he thought, he would have there, ready to 
meet us, precisely the right woman. 

Being new beginners at the business of help- 
hunting, we trusted him implicitly, and waited 
upon him the following day, at the appointed 
hour. He met us with his accustomed polite 
smile, and many professed regrets, that the right 
person had not yet come, but he expected she 
would in a few moments; then he added, 

"Please have the goodness to be seated and 
wait a very little while." 

We complied with his polite request and 
waited there two long tedious hours; but Mrs. 
Right failed to come, and reward our patience. 

We went there the following day, and again 
the day after that, with precisely the same 
result. She was always "sure to come to- 
morrow." 

Finally, on the fourth day of our attendance, 
we were introduced to the long expected Mrs. 
Right. We presume she was right in his 
opinion, but certainly not in our own. She was 
so stately and dignified that we actually almost 
felt afraid to speak to her. But then we were 



18 OUR TWENTY HELPS, 

wearied out of all patience, at having to go to 
that dusty office so often, and finding that she 
was tidily and sensibly dressed, that we forced 
ourselves to take her at least on trial. 

Upon her first entrance into our neat and 
warm kitchen, she cast a disappointed look at 
our cooking stove, in which there was burning 
a bright anthracite coal fire. She then hesitated 
in the act of removing her bonnet and exclaimed, 

" Oh, do you cook with stone coal ? " 

We assured her we did, and liked it much 
better than wood for kitchen use. She answered, 
" That may all be very true, but I do not under- 
stand how to use stones for wood, they will 
never burn for we." 

"0 well," we answered cheerfully, "we know 
how to manage it perfectly, and will make the 
fires for you until you learn how." 

She then finished removing her out-door gear, 
and appeared to be resigned to the dismal fate 
of having to burn stones. It was not long 
before we were forced to the conclusion, that 
she would be very backward at learning to burn 
stones, simply because she did not want to. She 



AND WHY WE PAKTED. 19 

was either too old, or too conservative, (we 
could not decide which) to conform to any such 
nonsense, as to make stones burn. Consequently 
we had to make and attend to our fires, just as 
fully as if we had no help at all in the house. 
Yet notwithstanding this great inconvenience, 
we determined to bear it, because in every other 
respect, she suited us completely. She was an 
excellent cook, and a splendid washer and 
ironer. Moreover, we firmly believed that in 
the course of time, she would surely learn how 
to use stone coal, as well for our benefit, as for 
her own. 

Thus we worried along with her, until she 
had lived with us several weeks. 

Then there came a crisis. 

We were visited one day by two lady friends 
who lived in the country. They came to spend 
the day with us. Spending the day with 
intimate friends, of course included their eating 
dinner and supper with us. They intended to 
return after supper by steamer to their home up 
the river. Our usual dinner hour was three 
o'clock; this they knew as well as we did. Now 



20 OUK TWENTY HELPS, 

it so happened that these two intimate friends 
and we, had not met in more than a year. 
Consequently, we had many communications to 
make to each other, and many interesting 
accounts of events to talk over, so that time 
slipped away very rapidly without our taking 
notice of its fleeting flight, until a neighboring 
public clock struck the hour of three. 

Then we hurried into the kitchen to inquire 
why we had not been called to dinner. 

To our consternation we found the kitchen 
fire dead out, and the dinner in the oven and 
on the top of the stove, was as cold and uncooked 
as it had been when first brought home from 
market. 

We went to work, made up the fire, saw it 
perfectly ignited, told Mrs. Mitty C. exactly 
how to treat it, then returned to our company 
and resumed our pleasant conversation with 
them. 

We talked with them what we thought a 
short time. Which short time proved to be a 
whole hour. We then went to the stove to see 
how the cooking was progressing, alas, only to 



AND WHY WE PARTED. 21 

find the fire again out, and the dinner still cold 
and uncooked. This happened no less than 
three times in that one short day. 

Finally our supply of kindling wood was 
nearly exhausted. It was before the blessed 
days of patent kindling, which now, can be 
bought at every shop in the city (almost). The 
man on whom we depended to split ours, we 
knew would not come to us until the next 
morning, therefore what we possessed, had to be 
used with economy. Consequently, it would 
not do to leave the fire another time to the care 
of Mitty C. 

It was by this time almost five o'clock, and 
our friends had to be at the wharf before seven. 

We considered and keenly felt how very 
hungry they must be. There was urgent neces- 
sity to hurry up our fire, and give them their 
dinner and supper in one meal, and that too, as 
speedily as possible, or we would have to send 
our friends on their home-going, in a state of 
starvation. 

How worried and ashamed we were of this 
breach of hospitality, no one but ourselves can 



22 OUR TWENTY HELPS, 

ever imagine. Meanwhile, we of course were 
not a shining example of angelic patience and 
amiability towards our delinquent cook. The 
next morning she formally told us that as soon 
as her week was up she was resolved to depart 
to some other place, where she would not be 
expected to cook victuals with stones. 

We tried hard to persuade her that she had 
better stay and learn how to burn coal, as very 
soon there would be no other fuel used for 
cooking. 

She obstinately declared, she would never try 
to learn to burn stones, whatever other people 
might choose to do about it. We had to let her 
go, and carry all her other good qualities to 
some other more congenial kitchen. 

MITTY D— {American) 

This was our fourth Mitty. She was a 
robust, cherry-cheeked damsel, aged about 
twenty-five years. She was sent to us, highly 
recommended by our friends in the country, 
who had recently spent a day with us, who 
thought we had been shamefully imposed upon 



AND WHY WE PARTED. 23 

by Mitty C, by having to make and attend our 
own fires. Our household and kitchen labor 
seemed to be mere play in her strong hands and 
brawny arms. This girl gave us no trouble 
about the fire making. On the contrary, she 
always kept splendid fires, not only in the 
kitchen, but also in every other part of the house, 
when and where they were needed. What a 
relief it was to resign into her stronger, and willing 
hands, the shovel, the scuttle and the poker! 

The only obstacle to our being perfectly satis- 
fied with her, was that she did not appear to be 
as happy and contented as we desired. We 
liked to see our girls happy and cheerful over 
their work, but this Mitty D. never was. When 
she had lived with us five weeks, she gave us 
notice, that at the end of the following week, 
she intended to return to the place which 
she had left to come to us. We were quite 
surprised at this communication, and questioned 
her very closely why she wished to go away 
from us so soon; to all of which she would 
make no other answer than that she was lone- 
some, and did not like to live in the city. 



24 OUR TWENTY HELPS, 

This was quite news to us, as we never before 
had any body about, who complained of being 
lonesome in our house. But that did not make 
any difference. When the next week came to 
a close, she took her departure to her former 
place, and we never saw her again, But before 
we had time to forget her entirely, we had 
another visit from our country friends, by whom 
she had been recommended to us. From them 
we learned that she was not satisfied to live 
with us, because we kept two tables, and 
expected her to wait on us while we ate our 
meals, instead of having her sit at the table, 
and wait on ourselves. 

This keeping two tables, in a small private 
family, is a debatable subject, and we do not 
wish to meddle with it. We think all house- 
holders should be perfectly at liberty, to do as 
they please upon the subject. 

MITTY E— {American.) 

Mitty E. was the daughter of an acquain- 
tance. She of her own accord offered to fill the 
vacancy which she had somehow discovered. 



AND WHY WE PARTED. 25 

We were not very much flattered by the appli- 
cation. We did not particularly admire the 
domestic habits of her parents. But we knew 
she had lived out a good deal, and always with 
very nice people, therefore we hoped she had 
learned from them their ways and habits, and 
had long ago been weaned from the customs of 
her early home training. 

Sustained by this natural hope, we consented 
to an engagement with our Mitty E. She 
began her new duties in a very flourishing 
manner. Did her work well, and was as neat 
about it as a new pin during the first three or 
four weeks of her sojourn in our midst. She 
was, during this time, a great source of comfort 
to us, because she seemed to require no watching 
or looking after. But at the end of that time 
we made the annoying discovery that she was 
very far from what she seemed to be, and was 
not at all reliable when our backs were turned 
on her. 

She would then leave undone certain parts 
of iier work, wherever she thought we would 
not notice the neglect. We were also informed 



26 OUR TWENTY HELPS, 

by some of our neighbors that she was in the 
habit of putting on our best and most expensive 
garments, and in them attired, would go out 
promenading, while the house was left alone to 
take care of itself, and our things were abused 
in a manner they never would be in our own 
use. For these "high crimes and misdemeanors" 
we ventured to reprove her, which act on our 
part so offended her dignity that she would not 
submit to it, and consequently abruptly deserted 
our employment, and went out on the quest of 
more indulgent mistresses. 

MITTY F— [American.) 

Then when we had been several weeks with- 
out any help, we were favored with the presence 
of another robust lassie from over the river — 
but she, and her habits were so very contrary 
to what we liked and wished them to be, that 
we suppose we found more fault with her than 
she thought we had any right to do, that she 
soon pleaded the excuse of home-sickness, and 
in a few weeks, she returned to her own people 
beyond the limits of the city. 



AND WHY WE PARTED. 27 

Notwithstanding her many faults, she had 
some good qualities, and we would have been 
quite willing to have given her a longer trial, in 
the hope that she would improve, and become 
more inclined to do her work according to our 
ideas of right and wrong about it. 

We very much disliked to make so many 
changes. But she was so unhappy and discon- 
tented, that we had to let her depart in peace, 
and re-fill her place as soon as we could. 

Perhaps she too pined after the one table privi- 
leges, to which it may be, she was accustomed. 

MITTY G— (American.) 

This our seventh Mitty was a splendid 
worker, and in every respect a perfect house- 
keeper. 

She had been several times employed by 
some of our most intimate friends, who all 
joined in praising her good qualities in the very 
highest terms. She told us she was at that 
time out of a situation, because her last employer 
had broken up housekeeping, and gone to 
boarding. This same Mitty G. was a very 



28 OUR TWENTY HELPS, 

superior cook. She frequently produced by her 
skill for our enjoyment, rare and delicious marvels 
of appetizing flavor, that were wont to surprise 
us and to please us. They were too, all this, 
without being unwholesome by their richness. 
Her bread and plain cakes were also faultless. 
Then too, she was a superior washer and ironer. 
All her other household duties were just as 
forcibly well performed. She was by no manner 
of means an eye server. 

We could go away from home, and stay away 
as long as we pleased in perfect confidence, that 
our domestic affairs would be conducted fully in 
as good order as if we were present. This was 
a great comfort and convenience. 

She had been accustomed to eat at a second 
table, and therefore our two tables did not 
incommode her in the least. She lived with us 
about a year and suited us so well, that we 
began to consider her a permanent fixture in 
our establishment. We comforted ourselves with 
the flattering hope, that we were done with the 
necessity of ever again having to make a change 
of help. But alas! this brilliant and flattering 



AND WHY WE PAKTED. 29 

hope was doomed to meet a bitter disappoint- 
ment, for about this time, our highly-prized 
Mitty began to show her true colors of character 
and disposition. To our most utter astonishment, 
she proved herself to be the possessor of a 
temper, that fairly frightened us. The strangest 
part of the manifestations of its violence, was 
that they occurred when there was no apparent 
cause to excite them . Then too, they always broke 
out at the most inconvenient times and seasons. 
Though we suppose for that matter, the indul- 
gence of angry passions will ever be unseasonable 
to the people who are obliged to suffer from them. 

We remember one day when the weather was 
bright and clear, but very cold, with just wind 
enough to make it what is emphatically a good 
drying day. 

Mitty had an unusually large wash in the tubs. 

When suddenly she fell into a violent passion. 
She banged to and fro, the doors of the almost 
red-hot stove, in such a way, that we expected 
the whole iron construction, grate, oven, and all 
would fall in pieces to the floor, set the house 
on fire and burn us all. 



30 OUK TWENTY HELPS, 

She threw the tubs, buckets, brooms, and 
brushes and other available articles, hither and 
thither, in all directions. Then she excitedly 
declared she was sick, and would not work 
another stroke until she felt better. Then she 
retired to her own room, and we saw no more of 
her during that day and evening. 

The ground at the time was under a hard fro- 
zen snow, twelve inches deep. We were afflicted 
with a heavy cold, and very unwilling to undergo 
the exposure of hanging out that large wash. 
Fortunately a woman lived in an alley behind 
our house, who sometimes worked out. She on 
that day happened to be at home, and at once 
came to our relief. We know not what we 
could have done without her ready and willing 
assistance. 

Mitty G. remained in her own room until 
those clothes were dried, ironed, and put away. 

Meanwhile, the Alley neighbor, took all her 
meals up to her, and the way in which they 
were eaten, clearly proved that she could not 
possibly be an invalid. On another day we 
expected company to dinner. The invited 



AND WHY WE PARTED. 31 

party was larger than we were often accustomed 
to invite, and in it there were some persons 
whom we wished to treat with more than 
common ceremony and attention. 

Naturally we under these circumstances, 
desired our dinner to be a grand success in all 
its appointments. The turkey was not half 
roasted in the stove oven. The eggs for an 
intended most excellent dessert, were broken, 
but no further progress in the sumptuous meal 
was made, when Mitty precipitately retired to 
the shelter of her own room, where she declared 
she was too sick to work any more that day. 

Of course in our dismay we sought the 
assistance of our neighbor in the alley, but on 
that day she was not to be allied to our relief, 
as she was away from home to stay until night. 
We had to cook and serve our dinner, at the 
same time, to try to entertain our guests, in the 
best way we could. 

When Mitty G. had reduced us to similar 
predicaments, about a half dozen times, we 
concluded she had done so quite often enough, 
and that she would have to seek a situation in 



32 OUR TWENTY HELPS, 

some other quarters, with people who were 
blessed with more patience than we could boast 
of possessing. 

MITTY H— [African.) 

Our eighth Mitty was a thoroughly well- 
trained servant from one of the Southern states. 
When she first came to us, she knew nothing at 
all about making or attending a stone-coal fire. 
But " where there is a will, there is a way," 
always. She had a very good and strong will, 
to learn how to do any thing which we wished 
her to do. Consequently in a very short time, 
she became a very good fire- maker, as well as a 
good and economical fire-tender. 

She was tidy in all her habits, as well as quick 
and willing with her work, and we were perfectly 
satisfied with her. She appeared happy and 
contented to live with us, and serve us. In her 
mind, there was no objection to her being called 
a servant. She rather seemed to be pleased 
with the title, instead of considering it offensive, 
as is sometimes done by hired helps at domestic 
employment. 



AND WHY WE PARTED. 33 

She lived with us nearly a year, and we were 
again flattered by the hope, that we were 
permanently suited. But she was taken ill with 
chills and fever, of a lingering and debilitating 
character. She was finally forced to take refuge 
in a hospital, where she painfully languished 
several months. When she was at last restored 
to health, she concluded our climate did not 
agree with her, wherefore she sought and found 
a home in a more southern latitude, and there 
we soon lost all sight of her. 

MITTY I— {American.) 

This youthful maiden was wild and un- 
manageable in all her ways, so that from the 
very first of her living with us, we had not much 
patience with her, and we dismissed her from 
our service when she had lived with us only 
two weeks. 

Her whole mind's attention was given to run 
the streets, at all hours of the day and evening. 

As we had hired her to work in our house, 
and not to gad the streets of the city, night and 
day, of course we did not suit her fancy, any 



34 OUR TWENTY HELPS, 

better than she did ours. She was apparently as 
glad to bid us a final adieu, as we were to see 
her take her peaceful departure from our dwelling. 
In what direction she steered her course we 
never knew. 

MITTY J— (Irish) 

came to us very soon after Mitty I. had left a 
vacancy with us to be filled. We were not long 
in making the troublesome discovery, that she 
suited us quite as little as any one we had ever 
employed. 

Almost immediately after she first entered 
our kitchen, she shocked our ideas of the fitness 
of things, by washing the potatoes for our dinner 
in the wash-basin, and her feet in the dish-pan. 
By wiping off the table with the house-cloth, 
and the floor with the dish-cloth. She dried the 
dishes with the hand-towel, and her face with 
the cup-wiper! She was determined not to 
learn the proper use of different things. Of 
course, such an amalgamation of the uses of our 
kitchen utensils, was far beyond our endurance, 
and when she had been with us only one week, 



AND WHY WE PARTED. 35 

we paid her the wages due her for that one 
week and dismissed her. 

There was no use at all in trying to teach 
her to do better, for she was one of those 
women (alas, there are too many of them,) who 
think they know everything better than every- 
body else in the wide, wide world. Consequently 
they in their conceit, scorn to be taught or 
instructed by their superiors in knowledge and 
experience. 

MITTY K— (African) 
came to us in the form of a colored woman of 
middle age. Upon her first appearance, she 
pleased us exceedingly. She began her new 
duties with a cheerfulness and an active dispatch 
that quite charmed us. She worked so well 
and steadily, that we were at once soothed 
into the delusive hope, that we had at last met 
with a domestic treasure beyond all price. But 
alas, for all human hopes! 

On the morning of the day on which was 
concluded her first week spent in our employ- 
ment, she came to us apparently in great mental 
excitement. She had just been out sweeping 



36 OUR TWENTY HELPS, 

off our front pavement. As soon as she entered 
our door she exclaimed, 

" Miss — , is it true you have a skeleton in 
this house?" 

" Who said we had ? " 

" Fanny told me so." 

"Who is Fanny?" 

" She is the girl that works next door. Oh, 
please tell me is it true ? " 

" Yes, Mitty, it is true, and we have a box 
also full of bones, will you go up stairs with 
me, and take a good look at them ? " 

" No indeed ! not I ! I would not look at 
them for all the world ! What makes you have 
them here ? " 

" They belong to my brother. He is a doctor; 
doctors often have bones in their houses. Why 
will you not look at them aud the skeleton ? " 

" Oh, I am dreadfully afraid of them ! " 

"How can you be so childish, Mitty? They 
are dead dry bones, they cannot hurt you." 

"Oh! I know better; I know the spirits of 
the people they used to belong to, will come 
here after them some dark night, and scare me 



AND WHY WE PAKTED. 37 

to death. I am sorry you have them in the 
house, for I cannot live under the same roof 
with them ! " 

" Nonsense Mitty — if you will not live with 
bones, you cannot live anywhere. Your own 
flesh is filled up with bones, and you carry 
them with you wherever you go. Do you not 
know that, Mitty ? " 

" Yes, ma'am, I know I have my own bones, 
but they are mine, and do not belong to dead 
people, and never did ! The ones you have up 
stairs are dead people's bones ! " 

" Well what of it if they are ? " 

" Their ghosts will come after them, and may 
be bewitch me ! " 

" Mitty ! you surely cannot believe what you 
are saying. Those old bones have been in this 
house three or four years without hurting or 
disturbing anybody in it; why would they now 
attack or try to hurt you ? " 

" Oh indeed ma'am I don't know — but I do 
know their ghosts will come after them." 

"Now Mitty, we have never seen a ghost; 
why should one come now to scare you ? " 



38 OUK TWENTY HELPS, 

" I don't know why, but indeed I cannot and 
will not stay another night in this house. I 
must go away before the sun sets. I am sorry 
to leave you — but I cannot help it, I must go." 

Neither reason nor persuasion would prevail 

on the fears of the foolish woman, and she took 

her departure as soon as she had eaten her 

dinner. 

MITTY L— (American.) 

This young woman suited us exactly; she was 
all we could reasonably expect her to be. She 
had but one fault, and that was of such a trifling 
nature, that we concluded to overlook it, and be 
thankful it was no worse. 

But as trifling faults will sometimes do, it led 
to the suspicion of her being guilty of a much 
greater one. In all probability, had we not 
been sure of her possessing the smaller one, we 
would never have thought of suspecting her of 
being capable of committing the greater fault 
that amounted to a crime. 

She had lived with us near two years. In 
all that time she was faithful and active in the 
discharge of her domestic duties. But occasion- 



AND WHY WE PARTED. 39 

ally, — at rare intervals we would miss a spool 
of cotton, a pair of valueless old scissors, or 
some trifle of a picture, all of which on making 
a search for them, we would invariably find 
stowed away in her trunk. They were trifles 
that we would most willingly have given her, if 
she had asked. But she never asked for any- 
thing. Then when we would tell her we had 
found them in her trunk, she would put on her 
face an expression of the most good-natured 
surprise, then with apparent innocence and 
sincerity, she would declare she must have put 
them there in a mistake. 

At last we were forced to the conclusion that 
she was honest, but strangely absent-minded. 

One summer the heat in our city was unu- 
sually severe, and we concluded it would be wise " 
and prudent to pay a long visit to the seashore. 
We had a relative living there, who was in the 
habit of receiving summer boarders. When we 
applied to her for rooms, we were informed that 
she had but one vacant in the whole house. 
It was a very large apartment on the first floor. 
She asked us if we would be willing to take it, 



40 OUR TWENTY HELPS, 

and have our Mitty also sleep in it on a cot. As 
she had lived with us so long, we thought it 
would be better to take her with us, than to 
either dismiss her, or leave her at home alone. 
Before we had sojourned there three days, our 
pocket-book that contained all our ready funds 
— enough to support us all summer — was lost. 
There had been nobody in the room but our 
ownselves, and one lady visitor, who was a 
permanent boarder in the house, and also a 
well-known and intimate friend of our landlady. 
As her character for honor was of the very best 
and highest among all who thought they knew 
her well, of course we could not suspect her 
of committing such a criminal act as to steal 
our pocket-book. We watched our Mitty's 
actions very closely while she was awake, and 
searched her baggage and clothes while she 
slept, but thereby made no discovery of our lost 
money that could aid us in proving that she 
had taken it. She could have no accomplice 
who could have received and concealed it. The 
idea of there existing such a possibility, seemed 
to us preposterous, for we knew she had no 



AND WHY WE PARTED. 41 

acquaintances in the house or neighborhood. 
She ate her meals in our own room as well as 
slept in it. She never went out of the house at 
the seashore, except in our company. While 
she was in-doors, she was always fully occupied. 

Poor Mitty ! it was cruel in us, yet what 
could we do? 

The robbery certainly had been committed 
either by her, or that very trust-worthy lady, 
who apparently had plenty of her own money. 
How could we suspect her of dishonesty ? But 
on the contrary, our maiden Mitty had frequently 
proved to us, that she was not perfectly honest, 
or else she really was what she had often 
professed to be, the victim of a most singular 
and unaccountable absent-mindedness. We 
thought we never were in greater difficulty, to 
decide what we ought to do about it. We could 
not accuse Mitty of having taken the money, 
because we could find no proof of her having 
done so. At last we resolved we had better 
dismiss her. We did so, greatly to our own 
regret and her immense sorrow. 

A few years passed away, and then we found 



42 OUR TWENTY HELPS, 

Mitty L. comfortably married, and settled in 
her own cozy little home. She was greatly 
respected by all who knew her, while there was 
never a whisper heard against her good and 
honest character. 

Meanwhile that lady of such high repute, 
who used to make social calls on us in our room 
at the seashore, had met with pecuniary losses, 
and had hired herself out as a governess in a 
rich family of our acquaintance. While she 
was thus engaged by them, she had by her 
actions, openly proved herself to be, one of the 
most artful and successful robbers that ever 
existed. 

No doubt she had committed the theft of cash 
for which Mitty L. and ourselves suffered so 
much. Poor Mitty ! But poorer and far more 
to be pitied was the real robber of our money. 

MITTY M—(Africar ) 

was a comely young widow of a coppery com- 
plexion. She was engaged to be married to an 
industrious young man, a few years her senior, 
and many shades of a darker skin than her 



AND WHY WE PARTED. 43 

own. She candidly informed us at the first, 
that her stay with us could not be permanent, 
because she expected to get married and go to 
housekeeping on her own account, in a few 
months. Then after that important event, she 
would be glad to work for us by the day, at 
washing, ironing and house-cleaning, whenever 
we might happen to be in want of help, at these 
useful branches of household labor. Accordingly 
she was married at the appointed time, and we 
were once more in search of some one to be her 
successor. 

MITTY N—{/rish) 

came to us from the Emerald Island of potatoes 
and buttermilk. She had but recently arrived 
from the "blissed auld coonthry," her heart 
had long yearned to come to this "land of 
promise," to make her permanent home with a 
married son, who had many years ago left her, 
to come here to seek his fortune by the labor of 
his hands, without much of a head to inspire 
him with the knowledge of where, and how to 
work to good advantage. 



44 OUR TWENTY HELPS, 

He had been for a long weary time promising 
to send her the money she required to pay her 
passage over the Atlantic, but had never kept 
his word to this effect, until a few months before 
it was our fortune to have her fall into our 
hands. 

While she was still in Ireland, she had enter- 
tained very brilliant ideas of the wealth and 
prosperity prevailing in every station of life in 
this " land of the free." 

She really appeared to have believed that our 
streets were paved with loose silver dollars, and 
that meat ready cooked, and bread ready baked, 
were found growing on trees and bushes. 

Poor Mitty N ! Very bitter indeed was her 
disappointment when at last she came and found 
her son had to work very hard for all the money 
he ever received, by carrying a hod full of bricks 
or mortar up a steep, high, and dangerous- 
looking ladder. Worse yet, she discovered she 
could not even enjoy the comfort of being the 
mistress of her son's house; for his wife was 
tyrannical in disposition, and in many ways 
was very annoying to the newly arrived mother. 



AND WHY WE PARTED. 45 

This was the reason why she soon made up her 
mind to go to a place, and try to earn her own 
living. She was entirely ignorant of our 
manners and customs, and gave us a great deal 
of trouble, by doing her work in a strange and 
unexpected manner. Yet we bore with her 
imperfections as patiently as we could, because 
we thought if we dismissed her, she would be 
under the necessity of returning to live with 
her uncongenial daughter-in-law, where we were 
assured she never would be contented. We 
hoped she would in time, acquire accurate 
knowledge of the way in which we wished her 
to work. She very readily learned the proper 
management of our fires, and made no objection 
at burning stone-coal. 

One day, we concluded to have stewed 
chickens for dinner, and asked her if she knew 
how to prepare them for the purpose. She 
responded, " I know the way they do them in 
the auld coonthry." 

Poor old soul ! The sigh and suppressed sob 
with which she always pronounced the words, 
<; the auld coonthry;" for there were in them 



46 OUR TWENTY HELPS, 

the sounds of woe and bitter disappointment, 
that made us sad at heart. 

We too, had lived in a foreign land, and well 
we knew the feelings of having to live among 
strangers. 

On this occasion, we supposed all countries 
could have but one way of preparing chickens 
for the stew-pan, we left our chickens in her 
care, and went out to make a few near social 
calls. 

Fortunately we returned home just before 
it was quite time to put our intended dinner 
over the fire. Great was our surprise and 
discomfort when we found our chickens accur- 
ately dissected, and soaking in a deep pan of 
cold water — with not one single hair singed off! 
She had not singed them at all ! She had not 
even pretended to ! 

Perhaps she thought she would surprise us by 
a dish of stewed hairs, as well as one of 
chickens. 

We had rather a late dinner on that day. 

Fortunately we had no invited guests waiting 
hungrily to share it with us. To wipe, dry and 



AND WHY WE PARTED. 47 

singe apart each piece of the cut- up chickens 
was not a trifling undertaking. 

Thus our worthy Mitty N. was almost daily 
in the habit of making some such blunders. Yet 
we bore with her patiently, because we knew so 
well she made them ignorantly and uninten- 
tionally. 

At last there came to us — as it must come, 
sooner or later — the season of Spring house- 
cleaning. In examining the fence of our back 
yard, we found it could not be properly white- 
washed, without first being scraped, to remove 
the remaining rough crusts, of former coats of lime. 

On this account, one day when Mitty's 
diurnal work was all finished, we set her at 
scraping the old lime from the fence. She 
scraped away very steadily a few minutes, then 
threw the scraper on the ground, and exclaimed 
in burning indignation, " Faith and if ye want 
that done, ye may get a nigger to do it — I will 
not ! " 

Then she went to her room, packed up her 
bag and baggage, and walked off to some other 
place. 



48 OUR TWENTY HELPS. 

" Oh ! " we exclaimed joyfully, " if we had 
known fence-scraping would rid us of her, we 
would have set her at it long ago." We never 
saw her again. We were glad to be no longer 
forced to hear whined so sadly in our sympa- 
thetic ears, the " doleful sound," of the " auld 
coonthry," in that dismal manner in which she 
was in the almost constant habit of grinding it 
out. 

MITTY O— (Irish.) 

Mitty 0. was a white woman, quite advanced 
in years, who had been a long time employed 
as a night-nurse in a hospital. She was strong 
and robust in frame and limbs as a man, and no 
doubt, handled and lifted her patients as easily 
as could have been done by the male nurses. 
She had not been more than three days in our 
service, when one morning, as she was passing 
through one of our rooms which we did not 
often use, she stopped suddenly before a portrait 
which hung on the wall; gazed at it intently a 
few minutes; then exclaimed, " That is the 
picture of Mr. , where did you get it ? 



AND WHY WE PARTED. 49 

We informed her we had inherited it, as he 
was one of our ancestors. Then we asked, 

" Did you ever see him while he lived ? " 

"Indeed, I often did! My husband was his 
head book-keeper. Oh! yes, I have seen him. 
But they are both dead long ago ! " 

Notwithstanding this singular coincidence, 
Mitty 0. was far from proving to be to us, a 
congenial or useful help in our household. She 
did her work in a careless, harum-scarum and 
untidy manner. Evidently, her long vocation 
of night-nurse in the hospital, had not improved 
her habits as a housekeeper. She loitered lazily 
over her neglected duties, in a way that was far 
from agreeable to our wishes. It was manifest 
to our minds that she had no desire to secure a 
permanent home in our employment. Probably 
she came to it solely, to obtain a transient 
vacation from her labors at the hospital, free of 
cost to herself. At the end of six weeks she 
bade us adieu, and walked back to her place 
therein. 

MITTY P— (African). 

Mitty 0. was very soon succeeded by Mitty 



50 OUR TWENTY HELPS, 

P., who was to our extreme satisfaction, a 
remarkably nice, tidy and active woman of 
African descent. She did her work well, and 
we were perfectly satisfied with her. She lived 
with us a year, and then some lady put the idea 
into her head, that she could earn much better 
wages in the city of New York. She left us 
and went to work in that city. When she had 
lived there six months, she was attacked by 
typhoid fever, and died in two weeks. 

MITTY Q— (Irish) 

was another faultless prize, and gave us very 
great satisfaction. She was very attentive to 
our wishes in every respect. She lived with us 
a year. 

At the end of that time, people in our city 
first began using gum elastic hose for the 
purpose of washing pavements. As we were 
always anxious to lighten the labor of our 
household help, as much as we comfortably 
could, we bought a pavement-washing hose, and 
had our front hydrant fixed, ready to have it 
used. 



AND WHY WE PARTED. 51 

But to our great surprise, Mitty Q. was 
unwilling to second our motion in her favor, by 
making use of our pavement-hose. As we had 
paid our money for it, of course we did not wish 
to see it idly rot on our hands. Perceiving we 
wished her to use it, she obtained another 
situation, where she was promised she would 
not be required to wash pavements at all, in 
any way. Then she departed. 

MITTY R— (African.) 

Mitty R. was another lady of color who did 
not fascinate us by any amount of extra good 
qualities. 

But as usual, we did not want to dismiss her 
until we could not help it. We hoped she would 
improve, and change in a way to suit us better. 

But when she had lived with us only a short 
time, she discovered the skeleton we harbored in 
our house, and that objection sent her promptly 
away on the hunt alter another place, on the 
double quick, without either shot or music. She 
was not willing to live under the same roof that 
sheltered dead people's bones. 



52 OUR TWENTY HELPS. 

We then decided that we would not hire any 
more persons of African descent, while we were 
in possession of our brother's skeleton, without 
first telling them we had it, and then they could 
do as they preferred about going or staying. 

MITTY S— {African.) 

But our very next offer of a highly recom- 
mended woman, came to us in the shape of a 
middle-aged female, who was an excellent cook, 
as well as a very superior worker in all the 
other branches of a good housekeeper's duties. 

Before we closed our bargain with her, we 
took her up stairs, and introduced to her notice, 
our skeleton in the closet, as well as its company 
of dry bones in the box near it. We then 
asked her if she would be afraid to live in the 
same house with them. She looked at them we 
thought admiringly, and passed her hand 
caressingly over the arm bones of the skeleton, 
and exclaimed, 

"Afraid of them? certainly not? why should 
I be afraid of such harmless things?" 

This gave us a very high respect for her good 



AND WHY WE PARTED. 53 

common sense, and we therefore hired her at 
once. 

She lived with us a year, and through it all, 
she proved herself to be a woman of remarkably 
cool, and clear judgment. 

In cases of sickness, or any other domestic 
trouble, we always consulted her opinion, and 
never failed to find it well worth the trouble. 
We became very much attached to her, and 
hoped we might never part. Unfortunately, 
she was smitten by a painful and lingering 
disease, that compelled her to take refuge in the 
home of her relatives, and submit to a long 
siege of rest and careful nursing. 

MITTY T— {African.) 

Mitty T. our twentieth, was another colored 
damsel, who had no fear of dead bones, nor of 
living ones either, as her conduct fully proved 
in a very short time. 

We have traveled a little in the Southern 
States of North America, and have lived seven 
years on the coast of Africa, but never in all 



54 OUR TWENTY HELPS, 

our experience did we ever see a human skin as 
black as was that of Mitty T. We named her, 
(among ourselves,) for grace and beauty, our 
" coal black rose." She was slim and tall, and 
full of grace in form, limbs and actions. Her 
features were remarkably handsome and deli- 
cate. She had no mark about her of being an 
African, except her intensely black skin and 
curly hair. If there is any virtue in blood to 
be manifested by signs, then her blood must 
indeed have been of the most regal and 
superior. 

She was majestic, refined, and lady-like in all 
her movements. She would wear a dress a 
whole week — do all her work in it — washing 
and scrubbing included — and at the end of that 
time, it would be as clean, as spotless, and as 
un wrinkled as if it had just come fresh from 
the ironing-board. Whatever work she did, 
passed through her hands in the same degree of 
remarkable perfection. Her cooking was so 
delicious, that every dish she prepared was a 
decided feast. When we had discovered all 
these excellent qualities in our precious Mitty 



AND WHY WE PAKTED. 55 

T., we began to congratulate ourselves on having 
at last found the most perfect being we had 
ever seen. But, alas for all human perfection, 
her oge was about twenty years. On the third 
evening of her sojourn with us, she had a 
visitor! He was a white-headed white man, 
who was full fifty years old. He remained 
sitting with her in our kitchen, until two o'clock 
in the morning. This was only the beginning ! 
After that, he came every evening, and always 
remained until the same hour of the next 
morning. Exactly this he did two whole weeks. 
Meanwhile, we had given him several scruti- 
nizing looks, and had concluded from the 
expression of his face, that he was of a very 
villanous character, who would probably take 
pleasure in committing murder. Finally we 
became so much afraid of him, that we could 
not think of sleeping while he was in the 
house. At last we resolved that his visits to 
our kitchen must cease, or we would have 
to dismiss our precious Mitty T. When we 
told her of our determination, she departed 
at once. 



56 OUR TWENTY HELPS, 

CONCLUSION. 

Soon after the departure of Mitty T., our 
brother returned from Europe, where he had 
been living a long time. To our great surprise, 
he brought with him, a new young wife. She 
had not been with us many days before we 
concluded that she and we, could not possibly 
live together as housekeepers. 

Consequently we went to boarding, and had 
no more to do with hiring help. This move- 
ment on our part, brought the present subject 
of our pen-picturing to 



THE END. 



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